The integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced exponential growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs, where each generation has smaller and more complex circuits than the previous generation. In the course of IC evolution, functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while geometry size (i.e., the smallest component (or line) that can be created using a fabrication process) has decreased. This scaling down process generally provides benefits by increasing production efficiency and lowering associated costs.
Such scaling down has also increased the complexity of processing and manufacturing ICs. For example, crosstalk has become a significant challenge as more IC devices, circuits, and/or systems having multiple functionalities are being densely packed into a single substrate to meet demands of advanced IC technology nodes. Often, crosstalk arises from capacitive, inductive, and/or conductive coupling between IC devices and/or IC components on the same substrate. Semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) technology has been implemented to improve isolation and suppress crosstalk between IC devices and/or IC components. In SOI technology, IC devices are fabricated on a semiconductor-insulator-semiconductor substrate, such as a silicon-oxide-silicon substrate, instead of a bulk semiconductor substrate. However, SOI substrates are very expensive, making high volume manufacturing of IC devices on SOI substrates cost prohibitive. Accordingly, alternative cost-effective approaches are needed for isolating IC devices and/or suppressing crosstalk between IC devices.